picaresque

Meanings

1. Of or pertaining to adventurers or rogues.
2. Characteristic of a genre of Spanish satiric novel dealing with the adventures of a roguish hero.

1. A picaresque novel.

Etymology

From picaro (“adventurer, rogue”) + -esque (suffix meaning ‘in the style or manner of’ forming adjectives), modelled after Spanish picaresco (“in the style or manner of a picaro; picaresque”), from pícaro (“rogue”) + -esco (suffix forming adjectives indicating a relation). Compare French picaresque (attested later than the English word), Italian picaresco, Portuguese picaresco.